"Team meeting," Tilly sighs, swinging her feet onto the table, "which means bad news."
It's late February and our testing has been scheduled and rescheduled four times now. Due to a new enclosure being put up during the summer they've brought graduation forward to the first of May so that we're all ready to help, should we choose to stay on.
"It might not be bad news this time," Lucas points out. No one replies. Selena walks in with our mentors and Kim gives me a sly thumbs up, which causes us to sit up, interested.
"Right, guys," Selena says, pulling a chair out and sitting on it backwards, "finally, some good news."
"Finally," Tilly says, "hit me with it."
"Your testing starts tomorrow," Selena says, "you have six weeks of supervised activities, then two weeks of writing and paper work and all that fun stuff, then graduation. So, today is your last official day with your mentors."
"Well, shit," Tilly says, "that's unexpected."
"Will they be with us?" I ask, "during the testing?"
"Nope, you're on your own," Selena says, "but honestly, I think you'll all be fine. So, go do your last day, get a good nights sleep and prepare for eight weeks of stress!"
"Shit," Tilly repeats.
"Come on, Til," Charlie says, "we've got some dung to shift."
"What are we on?" I ask Kim as we walk outside.
"Baby duty again," she says, "we get to spend the day cleaning out their cages and forcing dead rats down their throats."
***
The next morning I'm woken by Tilly coming in, fully dressed, and pale.
"What will I do if I fail?" she asks, opening my curtains, despite my protests, "I'll have no future."
"You'll be fine," I say, dragging myself out of bed, "Kim said we have to wear dress robes to graduation."
"Fucking what?" Tilly asks, "dress robes?"
"Yeah," I say, stepping into the bathroom to get dressed, "you know, hair up, makeup on, that kind of thing."
"Yeah, nah," Tilly says, "I don't swing that shit."
I laugh at her and pull my hair into a ponytail.
"Let's ask the others," I say.
"Aurelia is right," Charlie confirms after we pose the question at breakfast, "it's tradition."
Tilly is looking at us all in disgust, making us laugh even more.
"Right, well, let's get this testing on the road," she says, "no need to dress up if I fail."
The testing is a lot like what we've been doing, except the examiners keep their distance and observe, while we just work as part of the team. I can't believe they're going to spend a whole six weeks doing it, but Charlie explains that it's about consistency. It's easy to keep up a pretense for a week, less so for six. By week four I can see his point. We've been trying so hard to impress them that we're burning out.
"This is when the real testing starts," Kim says after we confess this to her, "you'll start to relax a bit more, maybe make mistakes. Making mistakes is fine, as long as after that you react properly. As long as no one is seriously injured, you'll be fine."
I don't find this as comforting as I think she feels it would be.
"Aurelia, you're with us today!" Jonathon, an older American guy, calls to me. I walk over to their group and the examiners that have been tailing me fall into step behind us.
"What's on the agenda today, Jon?" Chris asks.
"Two of the Horntails got into a fight," Jon says, "it ended badly for the female. We have to get rid of the body and move the eggs to the nursery."
"Morbid," Chris says, "how many eggs?"
"It's a surprise," Jonathon says drily.
We walk into the enclosure and follow Jonathon, keeping an eye out for angry dragons. Or just any of them, angry and Horntail go hand in hand.
"Male at seven o'clock," Chris says, "I suggest we stun him, he's a nasty one."
"Just keep an eye on him," Jonathon says, "we're not going too near him."
The dragon huffs threateningly, but looses interest and lumbers off.
"Ten o'clock," I say. Jonathon slows down as the dragon turns to look at us.
"Stunners, now!" Jonathon shouts. We react immediately, but not fast enough and have to dive out of the way of flames.
"Anyone burnt?" Jonathon asks, dusting himself off, then examining the unconscious dragon.
"No, we're fine," Chris says.
"I think this is the one that attacked the female," Jonathon says, "he's got a fair few wounds here, looks like she put up a good fight."
We continue on and soon come to the dead dragon.
"We're lucky the others haven't started to eat her yet," Jonathon says, "makes it easier."
We surround the dragon and I find the pile of eggs on one side. The mother died with her tail around them, trying to protect them. The sight makes me feel really sad. Some of the eggs have been crushed, but there's at least four that are still whole.
"Okay, Aurelia, Tony, June, grab the eggs," Jonathon says, "Chris, Steven, Li and I will levitate the body out, everyone else, on guard duty."
Tony picks up two of the eggs and June and I grab one each. They're heavy and still warm, which is a good sign. We let a few of the others take the lead, then fall into line. The exit is fairly uneventful, with a few younger dragons coming over, interested, but they're easier to scare off.
We get outside and separate, Tony, June and I going to the nursery. The eggs are kept in a really, really hot room, to simulate the mothers breathing fire on them. In order to take them in, we have to perform protective spells on ourselves so we don't burn up.
"There's only three spots left," June points out when we enter the room. There are little stone nest around the room, but only three are vacant.
"I'll get a box or something," Tony says, placing his eggs down, "hang on."
Even with the protective spells, June and I are soon sweating. Tony returns with a metal basin and places it on the floor.
"That'll work for now," he says.
With relief, we exit the room. I'm disgusted to find sweat dripping down my back.
"Nesting room?" Tilly asks when I join her at lunch.
"How can you tell?" I ask sarcastically.
"Sweat patches," she responds.
Another two weeks go by and our practical testing is over. Time for the theory. Selena assures us that this is merely so they can qualify as tertiary study, so we can get an actual qualification out of this, instead of it being just experience.
"It's a very good qualification, if you're working in the field, though," she says, handing out our first exams, "now, don't cheat. There's no need. In fact, probably split up a bit. Good luck."
"Do we really have two weeks of this?" Tilly asks.
"Oh, you can't talk during the exam," Selena says, "but yeah. I mean, only every second day, the others we want you in the field, so you don't get rusty. Anyway, shh!"
The exams are very much like the OWLs or NEWTs except dragon orientated and looking for very detailed and specific responses.
"You're so relaxed about all these tests," Tilly says after our last exam, "school must have been a breeze for you."
I couldn't help but laugh at her.
"I think since going off from the path my parents set so carefully for me, it's been less pressure," I say, after explaining what high school was really like. Tilly whistles softly.
"Man, I never had half that pressure," she says, "my parents didn't really give a rat's as long as they didn't get too many letters home. Too many kids to worry about. They never really expected me to get far anyway."
"Are they coming for the graduation?" I ask her. She shakes her head.
"Nah, didn't really expect them to," she says, "couldn't afford it. What about yours?"
"No," I shake my head, "things are... Complicated for the vampire community at the moment."
"What about George?"
"No, not him either."
"Ah well," she says, slinging her arm around my shoulders, "we'll have a blast, just the two of us!"